HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 is better and faster then the WD 1TB and cheaper.PSU: You need a 450 watt PSU for the HD 5770 with one 75 watt 6 pin PCI Express connector, but could be run on a quality 400 watt PSU. 600 watt with two 6 pin connectors will be needed for crossfire. RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB better, faster for 5$ more.

For the PSU : -Choose a PSU with at least 2 6-pole PCIe connectors. If, in the future, you wanna upgrade to currently available HD5830 or higher, you will need at least 2, because HD 5830 needs 2 just for 1 Card. If you plan to XFire 2 HD5830s or higher then you will need 4 6-Pole PCIe connectors. -Recommended for 1 HD5770 is 400W-450W, get higher if you plan to Xfire (power have to fit into your plan).

-i5 750 is good, but have you considered AMD X6 1055T? It has about the same price as i5 750.

-Your choice of RAM is not bad but have you considered 4GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1600 CL7, it should have about the same price but a little faster.

-Samsung F3 is definitely faster. And if you still have some room on thebudget, get an SSD for the master partition (where your OS will be).

thanks for the suggestions, TomMario and guanyu. I'd been considering the F3 and Ripjaws from what I had read in the other threads, but I can't find either locally. It might well be worth shipping coast-to-coast though.

the AMD X6 1055T seems like a good idea, and I can get it a good $30 cheaper than the i5 750.

That is a nice Mobo but take a look at this one ASRock 870 EXTREME3 you get Turbo UCC, True 333: USB 3.0, SATA3, eSATA3 for 50$ less and the same Xfire friendly layer (x8/x8), you only get 6 Audio Channels on the AsRock while on the Asus you get 8. I know the Asus goes more with Trust and Confidence in Brand Name but the AsRock just can't be ignored by budget builders.

I'd have to get the ASRock shipped over, and after shipping it ends up more expensive than getting the Asus locally. I'll keep looking, but if I can't get the ASRock local I figure I might as well go for the Asus.